L8 Unseen

Joe Farrag from Granby by Othello De Souza Hartley.

If I were to count up all of the photographs on this blog, and I’m not about to, I suspect that not far short of half of them would be of Liverpool 8. The last week alone has seen three posts about the work we’re all doing in Granby, and I’m forever writing about the walking and working I’ve been doing in and around L8 these last forty years.

Which is why I so wanted to see this exhibition. A friend had told me about it during the 4 Streets Market on Saturday, and as it happened my ‘aimless walk’ the day after led me to the Pier Head to see the Dazzle Ship and then into the Museum of Liverpool to see ‘L8 Unseen.’The exhibition is a mix of historic photos by L8 residents and new work by Othello De Souza Hartley. So nothing you’re seeing here – apart from the obvious ones of the museum – is a photo by me.

Stories, collages and interviews with the people, the people of Liverpool 8, thirty of them. Stories of love, of pain, of family, of racism sure, but also of joy and hope and a great big coming togetherness. Life-affirming is a very tired phrase now, but that’s what it is.

Stories and collages of the past.Stories more recent and now: Malik Al Nasir.Sandi Hughes.

Laurence Westgaph, the exhibition’s historian.

And Tommy Calderbank.

In fact, all of these people are in there. Some you’ll know, and all you’ll want to.What a place, what an exhibition. And I just want to point you towards it, not write a ‘review.’ Other than to say it’s wonderful, but I was on a walk so I only stayed an hour, and I’ll definitely be back.